


Necessity

by misura



Category: The Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson
Genre: Feelings, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-16 19:27:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13642920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: "I may not wish to bed him, yet there are times when I wish I might take him to my tent and make him sleep.""Only after feeding him, surely," Brukhalian said.





	Necessity

These days, finding Karnadas had become as simple a matter as finding Itkovian - and Itkovian was never hard to find to those who knew him.

Hard to watch, sometimes, though. _To watch and do nothing. To stand by and keep silent. To simply bear witness to, without acting._

Karnadas sighed, acknowledging Brukhalian's presence as well as, perhaps, the need for spoken words.

"This oath he has taken - it concerns me, Mortal Sword."

_Must we bring our god into this? I think ... not yet._ "Unless you are harboring some deep desire to bed him, I don't see how it would, Karnadas. And even if you did, that's your problem, not mine."

A ghost of a smile. _Our desires may not be physical, but that does not mean we do not love. Both of us, and equally. Thus, this conversation, long due._

"It's a sacrifice without reason," Karnadas said.

Brukhalian shrugged. "Perhaps he simply has no interest in such things." _But then, it could not in justice be called a sacrifice._

Karnadas nodded slowly, answering the thought rather than the spoken words. "I may not wish to bed him, yet there are times when I wish I might take him to my tent and make him sleep."

"Only after feeding him, surely," Brukhalian said. "And you would wish to hold him, to share in what strength and warmth you have, because he gives those things of himself to all who need them, freely and without stinting."

The smile turned less ghostly for a moment, before it flickered and died.

"For all that, he makes it hard for people to get close to him. To touch him. Friendship requires giving as well as taking, but it seems to me that Itkovian is inclined only to give, taking nothing in return."

_Nothing but their hearts. Their love. True, he takes them unwittingly. Still, to Itkovian, it may be an even exchange, even if it does not feel like one to us._

"Maybe so." Brukhalian shrugged. "But, Karnadas, you seem unaware that for you and I, there is no need to get close. There is no distance between us and him. We are already his, as he is ours."

Karnadas considered.

Brukhalian kept quiet, nothing how there was nothing in Itkovian's movements suggesting he might be weary, or pained by the wounds he had taken in yesterday's battle.

_A victory, or so it was declared._ Better than a defeat, yet there were always losses. Prices to be paid. People in need of comfort and healing. _No god is kind, but ours, at least, is honest. Ever dealing fairly, is Fener, and we serve him for it as well as we might._

"You are saying, then, that there is nothing to stop us from going over there and forcing him to lie down and get some sleep," Karnadas said at last.

Brukhalian inclined his head, waiting.

"After feeding him, naturally." Karnadas sighed. "You could not have come sooner?"

"I wished to give you time to reach the same conclusion by yourself."

Karnadas looked at him. "It seems you overestimated my intelligence."

_Not at all. Rather, I think I underestimated the depth of your emotions. The strength of the respect in which you hold Itkovian. Your love for him. Thus, Karnadas, the fault is mine and mine alone._

"A seeming only. I admit, I also hoped that our intervention might not be necessary."

"You mean, you hoped he might run out of people to help before falling over?" Karnadas snorted. "Since when are you such an optimist?"

_Since I met you and Itkovian, and saw how brightly the two of you shone._

"Might we discuss my failings another time?"

Karnadas grinned. "Of course. For now, let's go and sit on the one man who's even more stubborn than the two of us put together."

 

(Itkovian smiled, when he saw them coming. It was not enough to turn Brukhalian from his purpose, but even so, he felt a moment's doubt, a fleeting pang of conscience, to be putting his and Karnadas's needs before those of Itkovian and those to whose needs he had been administering.)

(Then, Karnadas by his side, he steeled himself and did what he had come to do.)


End file.
